Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Drink of the Week | K2 Kooler

This week’s drink is not
just refreshingly good, but it packs a hell of goodness. It is a combination of
local citrus fruit Kahel (or
Dalandan, Sour Orange) and a poor man’s green leafy vegetable Kamunggay(Moringa Oleifera), whose marriage I considered perfect and complementary
with each other. These two local ingredients have “K”, literally in their
names, and figuratively on the benefits it boasts, hence the coined name K2
Kooler.

Earlier last month I featured Kamunggay in a series
of blogposts, still I cant get enough of it. Amazed
of the many benefits and goodness it can do to our health, I was inspired to
create recipes out of this vegetable: there was a cupcake, pesto and soup made
out of Kamunggay. This time, let’s drink to its goodness!

In my recent visit to Cebu’s public market in Carbon,
I was able to buy few pieces of green citrus fruits Kahel, same sizes like your regular oranges. I bought it at amazingly P2.00 per
piece, much cheaper than our all time favorite kalamansi. Kahel as a citrus
fruit is rich in Vitamin C and B Vitamins and that is a natural immune system booster.

A housemate who is constantly looking for ways to
consume raw Kamungay inspired this drink.He played kitchen scientist in his aim to fight high cholesterol and to
lower blood pressure, backed up with online research and word of the mouth
testimonies. There is no approved therapeutic claim out of drinking raw
Kamungay juice, but its benefits, scientifically proven, are more than enough
to convince us that indeed consuming this juice boosts our body.

Here’s how to prepare this 'kooler':

1 tablespoon pureed kamunggay concentrate

Juice of 1 kahel fruit, reserve one slice for garnish

2 tablespoons wild honey

Crushed Ice

Sprig of mint for garnish

To prepare the kamunggay concentrate, put in the food
processor 1 cup kamunggay leaves, cleaned and without any hard stems. Add 1cup
water and puree until liquefied about 3 minutes. You will only need one
tablespoon of this concentrate to make a glass of juice, so set aside the rest
in a clean jar and refrigerate for future use. Consume pureed kamunggay leaves
within 2-3 days. The chlorophyll is responsible for its rich dark green color, and with chlorophyll alone we harness all the nutrients from the plant.

Mix 1 tablespoon pureed kamunggay, 2 tablespoons
honey, and juice of one kahel. Adjust sweetness according to your preference.
Mix thoroughly until all ingredients are well combined. Pour in prepared glass
with crushed ice, garnish with kahel slice and mint. Serve and enjoy this
healthy drink.

You can make variations of this cooler. Just change
your base juice (in this case the Kahel) to any citrus juice and then add up
the kamunggay concentrate. Kamunggay is best paired with any acidic bases to
temper and cover up its “strange” aftertaste that lingers in your mouth. I
suggest lemons, mangoes, oranges, kalamansi or a combination of these fruits.
Make sure to put more ice as this helps to better improve that strange taste.

If you are more creative and experimental, you can
create kamunggay shake by freezing the base juice, then add the kamunggay
concentrate when pureeing the frozen base juice. Or you can make a Kamunggay
ice cubes by diluting concentrate to water, using 1:4 ratio, 1 part kamunggay
concentrate to 4 parts water, mix and pour into ice tray then freeze. You can
add this iced kamunggay to any glass of citrus juice, and it will give off that
kamunggay goodness slowly as the ice melts. Very lovely to look at!

Total cost of this juice is less than P5.00. One
piece of Kahel is only 2 pesos and you can pluck few kamunggay leaves at your
neighbor’s backyard for free. You can use white sugar but I suggest using
natural sweeteners like wild honey to make this truly a healthy drink.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Search This Blog

This blog is...

Happenings | Calendar of Events

NATURAL & ORGANIC FOOD MARKET ENCOUNTER

July 4, 2012 3:00pm to 5:00pmCebu City Marriott Hotel

{This free event is brought to us by the Cebu Chamber of Commerce & Industry, in partnership with Germany’s AFOS Foundation & GFH, the Association of Negros Producers and the Negros Oriental Chamber of Commerce & Industry.